Malachi 2:16

2:16 “I hate divorce,” ¹  says the Lord God of Israel, “and the one who is guilty of violence,” ²  says the Lord who rules over all. “Pay attention to your conscience, and do not be unfaithful.”

Malachi 3:14

3:14 You have said, ‘It is useless to serve God. How have we been helped ³  by keeping his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord who rules over all? ⁴ 

[2:16]  ¹ tc The verb שָׂנֵא (sane’) appears to be a third person form, “he hates,” which makes little sense in the context, unless one emends the following word to a third person verb as well. Then one might translate, “he [who] hates [his wife] [and] divorces her…is guilty of violence.” A similar translation is advocated by M. A. Shields, “Syncretism and Divorce in Malachi 2,10-16,” ZAW 111 (1999): 81-85. However, it is possible that the first person pronoun אָנֹכִי (’anokhi, “I”) has accidentally dropped from the text after כִּי (ki). If one restores the pronoun, the form שָׂנֵא can be taken as a participle and the text translated, “for I hate” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV, NLT).

[2:16]  ² tn Heb “him who covers his garment with violence” (similar ASV, NRSV). Here “garment” is a metaphor for appearance and “violence” a metonymy of effect for cause. God views divorce as an act of violence against the victim.

[3:14]  ³ tn Heb “What [is the] profit”; NIV “What did we gain.”

[3:14]  ⁴ sn The people’s public display of self-effacing piety has gone unrewarded by the Lord. The reason, of course, is that it was blatantly hypocritical.